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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thanks for watching!
What is up, everybody,
and welcome to the United States
Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people, and of the people,
and in a world where creators are no
longer waiting for permission,
where the line between comics, film,
and multimedia storytelling is
disappearing,
a new kind of storyteller is emerging,
not just artists, not just writers,
but architects of entire universes,
and tonight,
We sit down with a creator who has
walked both paths from working inside the
machine at Marvel Comics to stepping out
and building something of his own.
A creator who understands what it takes to
move from contributing to stories to
owning them.
This is the evolution of a comic creator.
And tonight we welcome a creator whose
journey spans comics,
concept art and the expansion of
storytelling across multiple
industries.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Council of Nerds is now in session.
Tom, welcome to the Council of Nerds.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much for having me.
I was going to say the graphic intro,
by the way, is epic.
Just seeing all of the Star Wars
references and the music and everything,
you know,
definitely kind of got the tingles going
there.
So
It's really amazing.
That one's probably going to be around for
a short time longer as I do have
something new coming up here soon.
It is time.
The podcast has evolved from pop culture
to indie comic storytelling.
So it's going to be time for us
to evolve the intro and possibly the
graphic behind us here.
So we will see.
We'll see.
I'm cooking up something.
So it's going to be something really
special.
But Tom,
let's dive into this and tell everybody
kind of like how you got into comics
and kind of like a little bit more
about yourself.
Well,
I'll try and do the Cliff Notes version
because sometimes I have a tendency to go
off on tangents,
but I'll try and keep it streamlined.
So I when my dad was in the
military and we were stationed in Guam and
around probably five years old.
uh i'd watch tv with my parents and
one of the first things i remember seeing
on television was batman the old adam west
show oh yeah spider-man cartoon with that
jazzy spider-man spider-man and star trek
and so when i saw those i was
immediately hooked
Fell in love with what would eventually
become known, I guess,
as genre and nerd culture,
but just knew I loved it.
And then I remember,
I just think as a young child too,
probably even with Star Trek and Batman,
just those primary colors would definitely
appeal to a young kid.
And then my dad was stationed over in
Guam for about a year.
And then our family came back to the
States.
And then I remember my mom bought me
my first comic book,
probably around kindergarten, first grade.
And it was Batman.
And at the time, I didn't realize,
I think Neil Adams did the artwork for
it.
It was that kind of more gritty.
I was wondering where Robin was at.
He didn't seem to be in this issue.
And Batman's cape was like,
twenty feet long.
So I was a little confused by that,
but I was still drawn in.
And right around this time, too, my mom,
who's a wonderful artist,
I started taking her pictures that she'd
drawn as a teenager,
and I would sit there and try and
copy them.
So right around the time of being into
comics,
being into science fiction and superheroes
and art,
all kind of started the path pretty much
for the rest of my life around that
time.
And so as I tell people,
I fell in love with all of it,
and I never looked back.
So...
It's really cool,
and I forgot we had that conversation
many, jeez,
many months ago now about you also being
an Air Force brat,
and it's just really cool.
Guam's a beautiful, beautiful place.
So what did that grind?
So you didn't really have a chance to
grind very much on the indie scene before
you went straight into Marvel.
You kind of went kind of backwards than
what most people do.
They work their way up through the Indies
and then go Marvel.
You had the luxury and the pleasure of
getting to work on Marvel before creating
your own IPs.
What was that like back when you first
got that call from Marvel or that letter
or email from Marvel saying, hey, yeah,
we want to work with you?
Well, kind of before I jump into that,
I guess I was going to mention the
next milestone that even made me want to
be a comic creator was around eleven years
old.
We'd go visit my grandma's house and my
uncles who were young men and teenagers at
the time.
They would get out all their their
collection of comic books from up in the
air.
So I learned a lot more about other
characters from both Marvel and DC.
So it opened my world to like.
um even pulp heroes that were being
adapted like doc savage in the shadow okay
yeah um and then around this time too
there was this uh marvel superheroes
cartoon where they took like
I think Jack Kirby artwork and they like
animated an arm or, you know,
and I love those.
So I was introduced to like what started
out with especially Batman was just the
whole floodgates were open with all these
amazing characters out there.
So around this time, too,
I think I slowly started paying attention
to the artists that were drawing these
books.
Like my mind was kind of sort of
getting clicked into like, oh,
wait a second.
I really like the way this looks.
And so around that time,
I started realizing, obviously,
there's people behind these wonderful
books that I was consuming.
And so that's roughly around the same time
as Star Wars came out.
And like a lot of people, I mean,
I got to go see Star Wars when
it was first in theaters.
Like many out there, it changed my life.
So probably around that time, too,
creatively,
maybe being a comic creator or filmmaker
both kind of hit me at the same
time.
And I was a pretty shy kid,
but I would try and consume
any periodicals or trade i could get my
hands on that you know i would just
eat everything up that had articles uh
eventually there was like starlog and
comic scene uh these books and especially
in comic scene which was put out by
the same publishers of starlog gave a lot
of behind the scenes information and so i
started seeing articles about you know and
this is probably when i was around
eventually fifteen or sixteen if you want
to try and get into comics maybe this
is a way to go about it because
obviously when you're younger you have no
idea there was no internet right
yeah i so you know and of course
um you know back then you start to
kind of graduate from just drawing a
single like an image of a character doing
whatever right and then you realize well
you're going to have to actually draw
pages or sequential
So I started practicing that stuff when I
was around fifteen or sixteen.
And then it wasn't until my very early
twenties that I decided to take the plunge
and go out to San Diego Comic-Con and
bring my artwork with me.
And I made a lot of the same
beginner mistakes that first go around.
In fact, I remember showing up.
I felt like a country bumpkin showing up
at San Diego.
And it was like Shangri-La,
like I saw all these comic creators I
really admired.
Just being into that world,
it was like magic.
I felt like I was in a fairytale
gone to a different place.
And then I would see the portfolio review
lines and I would see people ahead of
me that were really good.
so that first day after seeing that and
watching them a lot of them getting torn
to shreds in the portfolio review lines
and other critiques yeah i tucked tail and
went back to my room that day and
my ex-girlfriend at the time i told her
that she goes well maybe go go in
the next day because i was booked there
for the three or four days for the
show i um she goes well maybe you
tell them you traveled the long way to
come here i think that was her way
of saying maybe they'll go easy on you
so so the next day i did that
nervously with my portfolio and um and i
actually remember because i had a chance
to chat with him a few years ago
the person who did it my first review
was at dc and it was elliot s
megan who has been a writer he's written
a lot about you know superman books etc
and uh and he was very uh
very blunt,
but I think I needed to hear that.
I think anyone who wants to do that,
they have to kind of go through this
baptism of fire.
Like, you know,
after your family and your grandma tells
you your stuff is amazing to work with
the pros, you need to hear like, Oh,
you've got so much to work on.
You're not ready.
Right.
So,
and so what I did was after getting
the first rejection from him, um,
I'm like, well,
I'm going to go to Marvel Comics next.
So I ended up seeing Mark Grunewald,
who has since passed on.
He was sitting there eating a donut.
And I remember walking up to him saying,
nervously asking,
do you have a time to check on
my portfolio?
And he just kind of led us this
like,
You know,
like I could tell I was bugging him
already.
Yeah.
Which is donut down and goes through my
stuff and basically mentioned a few things
like, you know,
some of the anatomy needed work.
This this lady's arm looks deformed.
Your storytelling,
it's kind of all over the place.
You know,
a lot of the stuff that people hear
at the beginning.
So then I started out with a big
two to get my first two rejections.
So I decided from there I was going
to work my way down to independent
studios,
which around then was like first comics
and.
few others and um so i just kamiko
and so i decided to approach every one
of those and every person who saw my
my work shot it down so of course
i was pretty deflated that day um and
i decided to at least enjoy myself and
i walked around the convention floor and
started finding artists that i really
admired the work and i ended up seeing
carl kessel who had been eating john byrne
on superman and by the way john byrne
was my first rock star comic book idol
it was because of him i was following
his run on x-men that was the first
comic i started collecting on my own yeah
i'd get on my bicycle and bicycle to
the local iga i know when it came
out once a month really excited and just
you know that was almost religious to me
that that kind of an experience so i
followed his work became an insta fan and
terry austin and chris playermont so when
john byrne moved over to superman several
years later i followed him on that book
and really loved carl kessel's inks on his
and i think he's a great anchor so
i walked up to people like him
asked if they could take a look at
my work you know a lot of them
were very approachable and friendly so
Carl actually looked at my stuff and he
goes hey have you ever thought about
inking he said you got some pretty good
stuff going on here I can see you've
got you've kind of got it dialed in
some of the random stuff that some people
struggle with so I ended up talking to
him and that was kind of the feedback
that I got from some people like maybe
try and break in as an anchor
So I did, and I did some samples,
and I got a hold of editors at
Marvel and DC,
and I got samples sent to me.
But as I was going over the samples,
doing like inking with a pen and a
brush, I kind of was reminded, I'm like,
you know,
I always wanted to be a penciler.
And what I remembered was Carl Kessel,
besides giving me encouragement,
he gave me the one-on-one fundamentals of
sequential storytelling, you know,
because I was trying to be too clever
with my first thing I brought.
It was like kind of a Watchmen-esque grid
thing,
like Dave Gibbons had done on the Watchmen
series.
And, you know, Carl said, well, you know,
it's the same kind of storytelling
language, you know, like a filmmaker,
director.
have an establishing shot,
have a medium shot, have a close up,
you know what I mean?
All they have three to five panels per
page.
And that to me sort of cracked the
initial code of like, oh,
and then I started really studying after
that how to move your camera around.
So with that being said, I decided, well,
rather than trying to break as an inker,
I'm going to sort of like maybe take
a couple of years and
see if I can remember what Carl said.
And the next time I go back,
I mean,
the other kind of amateur mistake I made
is I brought everything on construction
paper, cardboard paper,
did it in felt pants.
So there was a little bit of bleeding
in some of the line work.
And so I went ahead and picked up
some Bristol board and then did my stuff
in pencil, you know,
if I was going to be a penciler.
So I decided to do a couple of
sequential pieces.
There were two different ones I did.
And I decided to showcase...
the fundamentals of storytelling.
And what I did was,
which some of the other guys don't do,
is that a lot of I've seen guys,
you know, since I became a pro,
they're in line and they do a Spider-Man
or Superman.
Well, right away,
since the editor is prepared not to give
you a job,
they'll look at your version of Peter
Parker and that'll be enough for them to
go, I don't like that, you know.
So I knew that kind of going in
before I was going to bring my second
round of work.
And I went ahead and did stuff that
showed a crowd scene, some conversation,
a little bit of action,
showing my knowledge of perspective,
pacing, and two different stories.
In fact, actually, I think about it,
there were almost three that I did.
And so I brought those with me.
And I went there with two good friends
of mine that also wanted to break into
comics.
that I grew up with here locally in
Rapid City, South Dakota,
which is where I've been living again.
And we took our first trip to San
Diego together.
So they kind of walked along with me.
I decided to take the same trajectory.
I'm going to hit DC up first.
So I go up there.
And the first thing that the editor says
when I get in line, he goes, hey,
who are you working for?
You know,
so they wanted to put me in touch
with Casey Carlson,
who was the editor of Legion of
Superheroes.
So that was at a complete hundred and
eighty for my first time.
Right.
Where people were like, oh,
are you working for somebody already?
You know,
I felt like that was a good sign.
And then Casey and I were never able
to meet up.
But I ended up going through and meeting
a ton of people.
And I brought Xerox's of all my pages.
Right.
And people would ask to keep them.
And so that was a great weekend because
everyone I talked to, they're like, oh,
you should be working, you know.
And then I remember towards the end of
that meeting,
I ended up trying to find a few
more people.
And then I went over and kind of
took the same approach and met Coley
Hamner.
And he was doing some work for Malibu.
And he goes, oh, hey,
let me introduce you to my editor.
So I met his editor.
And the same kind of thing, like,
you know,
I'll see if this guy can get you
a gig.
So fast forward a few more months,
you know,
because I gave the guy my information.
He said to get a hold of him
right away so he doesn't forget me.
And then I called that guy a few
times, and I never got an answer back.
Yeah.
And that turned into a few months.
So then I'm going, what's going on here?
Well,
this is back in the days of –
answering machines.
And I got a call from somebody claiming
to be an editor for Marvel.
Well,
it turned out to be my roommate who
also wanted to break in the comics.
He thought that was a very cruel, funny,
practical joke.
I told him I was going to bring
it.
And I'm like, well, you know,
let's fight and stuff right there.
So, so, so we got through that,
but actually a month later,
I did get a voicemail.
And it said, oh,
this is Matt Mora from Mighty Marvel
Comics,
and I'd like to talk to you about
possibly working for me.
So I'd ask my buddy,
did you do this?
Did you do this again?
He's like, no, no,
I swear it wasn't me.
So I called them back,
and basically they wanted me to work on
Punisher,
and he was working under Matt Mora.
So, of course, I was very nervous.
very excited and uh and learned the
process back then that they were going to
send me a sample script and uh what
i had to do was to take like
typing paper to do breakdowns and for the
audience that doesn't know like um
breakdowns are kind of like the
storyboards for comic artists right like
like you sort of give the editor an
idea of the pacing and how you're gonna
lay out all your pages and how you're
going to do your camera movements and your
closeups, et cetera.
So I would have to sit there and
do that and send those to him.
And then he'd give me some feedback.
But I remember when I first started
drawing the first few pages,
I was so nervous.
I had to redraw them three different
times.
And by the way,
I don't know if Marvel still does it
now,
but they actually sent you everything.
They send you a FedEx box with all
your pages, reference from the comics,
drawing materials, all of it.
They provide that for you.
Oh, wow.
That was very exciting,
getting that in the mail from them.
So you were actually mailing stuff.
I want to make sure that people are
understanding that.
You were mailing stuff back and forth
through USPS.
Well, through FedEx,
and that's what they did back then.
Yeah,
you would probably FedEx them five pages.
they get approved,
they send you a pay voucher for those
five pages,
which I have framed my very first check
for Marvel.
Um, but you know,
the thing was even during that time,
because I, um,
I forgot to mention this earlier,
but while all this was going on and
my excitement about maybe becoming a
filmmaker and being a comic book artist,
I had created a character of mine also
around this time called Black Alpha.
I've never changed the name.
But back then,
it was kind of more so like some
people think.
And I've seen some of the Image Comics
founders have these stories.
Like some of the characters they created
as kids,
they ended up making their characters when
they launched Image, right?
And I think a lot of the comic
creators who have that kind of an
imagination, myself included,
you start getting kind of jazzed by
bringing your own material to life, right?
So Black Alpha was kind of the result
of space, superheroes, Star Trek, Batman.
And I didn't realize it at the time.
But back then,
I think I treated it more like as
a hobby because I felt like the only
way that I'm going to be able to
do this is get a paying gig.
And at the time, they paid comic artists.
made you feel like a millionaire,
you know what I mean?
And so that was potentially a game changer
for me.
But I think, and unfortunately though,
as I got around that time,
the market had really gotten big.
And then right as I got my foot
in the door,
it imploded pretty quickly too,
you know what I mean?
That speculator boom happened a lot of
books.
So I wasn't on the Punisher book actually
for very long before they canceled the
title.
In fact,
I got a card in the mail right
around April first,
letting me know the book was getting
published.
getting shut down and they said this is
not a april fool's joke by the way
right i actually have that letter too by
the way from the editor i i save
all these things yeah that's wild so at
least they told you you know they didn't
just let you go oh they're with me
right this april's fools you know
At least they said, hey,
this isn't an April Fool's joke.
It just happened to be like, you know,
timing.
And during this time,
it was fine because I got invites to
come to some of Marvel's parties in New
York.
And then I remember like I had one
of the editorial rate committee sent me a
letter letting me know they were going to
start me out at a higher rate than
what they did for beginning pencilers.
because I think they had big plans for
me to help maybe try,
because they really liked my style back
then,
which was being compared to Art Adams and
Michael Golden.
I think they were hoping that I could
maybe become a name, I guess, right?
And they started me out at least.
I don't know,
fifty hundred dollars more than what they
were giving the beginners back then per
page.
Right.
So all this stuff was going, oh,
here I am.
I've arrived, you know, not knowing that.
And that's kind of that certain naivete
that you almost have to experience in life
where you're going just because you get
your foot in the door,
especially in a creative field,
doesn't there's no guarantee that you're
going to stay there.
And unfortunately, in my case,
there was some poor timing about where the
market was at.
And so the editors that I were working
for at Marvel,
some of them got let go too.
And so they started going around to
different companies.
And they were keeping in touch with me
to try and continue to give me work.
Harris had the license on Vampirella.
The guy that actually called me for Marvel
was going to try and get me a
gig drawing Vampirella.
And this kind of went on for a
while.
And then the other editor, Joy Cavallari,
he ended up going over to Superman.
And so I ended up doing a kind
of a tryout version of,
remember the Superman blue, the electric?
Yeah.
That era.
So I did a version of that.
And then also had a couple other friends
who were working in the industry like J.H.
Williams and
kind of tried to get me in touch
with, you know,
I got a list of editors names,
like try and hit them up.
But I think the timing of it wasn't
the best because I started talking to
other people when I see them at San
Diego Comic Con.
And some some guys are like,
I hate to tell you this,
but I've been drawn for years and I
can't even get work right now.
I've been on titles for years.
Right.
So, you know,
so I continue to try and do that.
And then.
A couple of my other buddies eventually
would sort of get their foot in the
door with comics, too, with Image and DC,
but
before that happened for both of them
actually,
they actually got their foot in the door
in the video game industry.
And so they were telling me for quite
some time, get a gig working in games,
like your salary, you get benefits,
the money is way better.
than comics.
And so I decided to kind of pivot
and make that my goal.
But that took a little while to have
that happen.
You know,
that's one thing I guess I try and
give myself credit for is, you know,
I've picked a kind of a path for
myself, that it's not so simple,
you show up, you apply for a job,
you give them your resume,
maybe you're going to get hired,
like when it comes to the creative field,
like anyone knows, if you're in a band,
if you're an actor, filmmaker,
It's a lot of it has to do
with a number of things before you get
kind of that lucky break.
And sometimes it might be the only one.
Maybe you'll get a few.
But I I was always hungry for it.
I guess that's why even with kind of
a fragile ego and being somewhat reserved
back then,
I knew in my mind I just couldn't
give it up.
So eventually I did end up getting my
foot in the door for a number of
years.
with video games and I worked on some
games that were created for the
PlayStation network.
And then I worked on a few other
games that, um,
would be more along the lines of like
world of Warcraft and, um,
torchlight, things like that.
And I was working as a concept artist.
So concept artist was the guy,
he's the artist that designs everything
from the ground up.
It doesn't characters, weapons, cities,
an entire, you know what I mean?
Just everything to go with your assignment
and it starts with you and then it
gets handed off to the three-D modeler,
et cetera.
And they get a rigger and animator and
then they move it around with a
programmer.
But so I did that for a while
and it was a lot of fun and
it kind of helped me improve my skills
as an artist.
Because the thing the thing that I tell
people and some of my other friends told
me, too,
is like when you get your your foot
in the door, being a true artist,
getting paid for it,
your skills should grow exponentially
because now you're getting to do that
every day and learn techniques and learn a
number of things to improve where you're
at continually.
And so so while this was going on,
because a lot of, like I said,
the companies I worked for,
they put me on fantasy games.
One of the last companies I worked for,
they were doing the Marvel heroes MMO.
And some of the guys are going, well,
if you do it for Marvel,
why aren't you on this game?
And I'm like, I have no idea,
but you know, it's all fun.
Cause I,
and here's something I tell people that
they kind of get a kick out of.
I don't play video games.
I never have.
When I would go in for interviews,
I would be honest with the team,
you know,
the hiring team or the CEO or the
VP or whatever.
And I said, here's the thing.
Since I was five and six years old,
I've loved drawing monsters.
I've loved drawing futuristic rifles and
spaceships and vehicles.
And I said,
the visual language that goes into
creating stuff for games or films or
comics, it's all the same.
I said,
the kid in me still loves drawing all
these things.
So that was the thing that would get
me hired on a number of occasions with
different studios, right?
Some of these guys found out I had
a history with Marvel.
And then I started getting pretty active
on social media.
People would say,
have you ever thought about going back to
Marvel?
And of course,
I'd been in the game industry for a
number of years.
And part of me was kind of going,
well, probably not.
Because just so many things are different.
And I won't say better,
but a little more financial stability at
the time, et cetera.
But I got to thinking about that.
And I was going, you know,
I should go back and revisit some of
my old characters.
And Black Alpha being the first one I
created at eleven years old,
I decided to take what I learned as
a concept artist.
And about probably this was all around
twenty years ago,
I started seeing these artists put out
when flash animation was a new thing.
Yeah.
There was a website called New Grounds and
there was some amazing stuff.
I'm friends with some of the guys from
that like.
You know, when that came out,
that was one of my favorite websites to
visit.
Yeah,
like the creator of the web series Zombie,
which got a lot of traction,
and then Dr. Shroud,
a couple of those guys,
they were inspiring to me.
So I've had a number of inspiring
milestones and chapters,
and I saw what they were doing with
Flash animation.
So I'm going, you know what?
I should try and animate a Black Alpha
cartoon.
So I started doing some tests back then.
I did some tests in Flash,
some small scenes and vignettes.
And then it dawned on me where I'm
going,
it's going to take me years to try
and animate this thing by myself.
And so I would still kind of play
around with the notion,
but I decided to take that animated style
and go,
why don't I just finally make a comic
of my character, you know?
And,
and so while all this was coming together,
I kind of had a vision and I
was always reading the trades and I was
sitting there going, you know,
we kind of live in the age now
where the internet kind of gives people a
certain amount of power in the platform
and you don't have to wait for the
gatekeepers to give you a shot.
Right.
So I decided to kind of take that
inspiration and other people, like I said,
I'm always paying attention to what's
going on around me in the trades and
everything.
And so I would learn things and get
ideas from, from people.
And then I'm like,
I'm going to take the plunge and I'm
going to get my comic out there.
Um,
So while this was going on, however,
you know,
Black Alpha being created at eleven,
I also created other characters of my
teens.
There's a character named Damian Moon,
which he was kind of like a James
Bond meets Doctor Strange.
Another character, Salem Tusk.
He was kind of my African-American Indiana
Jones.
And then I had others through the years
that followed.
And so while I was getting Black Alpha
off the ground and then kind of thinking
about the age that we live in,
I was sitting there thinking to myself,
like kind of a notion I had for
many years where I wanted to create kind
of a creative coalition of colleagues and
say, let's build an IP generator studio.
And we take these characters and we
cultivate these IPs to be built for kids'
books, video games, comics, toys, movies,
cartoons, et cetera.
So that also started kind of percolating
in my brain about fifteen years ago.
And so in tandem during that time,
I've continued to try and build this IP
universe of mine with an eye towards that
stuff.
And I pretty much I utilize stuff like
Facebook.
I still do to this day as a
prime.
I'm a very proud dad.
So I tell people.
If you're one of those people that their
parents always sharing pictures of their
kids, sorry, I'm a proud Papa.
My daughter is going to be on there.
I'm a proud dad.
But anything else that I have on like
Facebook is all about my art and promoting
what I do.
And because of that,
You know,
I've had a few instances where Black Alpha
was optioned to be developed as a cartoon
or animated movie.
In fact,
seven characters that I have in the public
eye,
they've all had interest from producers in
Hollywood.
A few of them have kind of gotten
far, haven't stuck the landing yet.
um there is one film being made currently
on one of my characters that's being
filmed in el paso texas that started
filming about two years ago it's an
independent production so it's going to
take a while but i actually get to
have a stanley style moment where i'm
playing one of the bad guys in it
i have about ten lines uh i haven't
filmed my part yet but um so so
because of social media and realizing
kind of what it could bring um my
i guess my notion was i was hoping
that the right people or enough people
would see what i'm doing and maybe liking
the premise or the designs or the artwork
because i've tried to kind of also
cultivate a brand with my name with what
i'm doing both both together kind of my
my persona and and my goals and um
so that's kind of how i found the
opportunities that i found including
getting black off on the big bang theory
was somebody that I met on Facebook, uh,
getting black alpha and USA today was
someone that I met at San Diego comic-con
who saw my stuff on Facebook, you know,
and, and was,
they were launching a new kind of, um,
Trying to think of the term like it
was a new kind of a movement to
get indie comics out there on something,
you know,
because like when you're on USA Today,
that's also huge exposure.
Oh, yeah.
So so they were I was one of
the first people they thought of,
you know,
and by this point I was getting Black
Alpha issue one completed and wrapped up
because I had a goal that I wanted
to sort of.
And especially I remember the first con
when I started promoting it,
I had like a preview edition done.
But there was a nervousness like, OK,
here we go.
Because now I'm not going to focus on
my history in video games and Marvel.
I'm going to focus on stuff that no
one's ever heard of.
And you can be a little nervous.
Because, you know, I mean,
that's kind of when the test comes where
you're going,
maybe this will land with a thought or
nobody will be interested, you know,
but I, I always got a warm reception.
And pretty much what I what I've done,
I told people as I take stuff I've
learned,
like when Star Wars was first being
promoted back in nineteen seventy six,
Charles Lippincott,
who was their marketing director,
they brought posters, T-shirts.
some stills from the film and then had
like a panel to discuss the film to
sort of get people.
So I basically decided, you know what,
I'm going to create my own merchandise
prototypes to be at the show.
So that brings people,
and some of those ended up on the
Big Bang Theory, by the way,
the Maquettes,
and I had little spaceship models and all
that.
And that's kind of what worked,
because then it would bring people over to
my table going, what's this?
So then, of course,
I have kind of the pitch ready.
And one of the very kind things that
people have said through the years is that
since I'm a lifelong,
very passionate super nerd,
that comes out when I talk about my
stories, too.
They said you get really, really excited.
You know, it's very infectious.
And they said,
you can tell this means a lot to
you.
You know,
you have literally covered half of my
interview and I've only asked you one
thing.
Oh, sorry about that.
You're very much passionate.
No,
that is like the best thing in the
world is I could just like get it
started and just let you go.
And I'm just following along over here of
where you're at.
I'm like, Oh, I didn't,
I don't send interviews people.
Like I said,
it's just something I won't ever do.
And he's literally almost covered
everything word for word that I wanted to
talk about.
So it's been great.
Just listening to your story on this side
of the camera and on this side of
the microphone,
I do want to touch some more though
on black alpha in what you've done with
the big bang theory.
If you're good with that.
Sure.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
Oh, no, I was going to ask like,
so black alpha at its core,
like what's the concept of the story and
kind of like,
where did the idea for black alpha come
from?
Well, when I was at eleven,
I decided to.
There was a couple of books out that
were on that time,
one of them was Star Lord,
who eventually becomes, you know,
one of the members of the Guardians of
the Galaxy,
a slightly different version than the.
the Chris Pratt version,
and also another book called The Man
Called Nova.
And it was fun to be around those
when they were the beginning stages.
So both of those stories showed me the
concept of the cosmic superhero.
And already loving Star Trek,
I kind of was like, you know,
I should maybe kind of create my own
space superhero.
But the laughable part is I took –
And, you know, and as a kid, too,
I was also into stuff like some of
the some of the Asian superheroes like
Ultraman.
Oh, yeah.
There was there was a movie I saw
at the drive-in called Inframan.
And that character,
he had kind of sort of this round
bug like helmet with these big bug eyes.
So I sort of took that,
like this round helmet with these bug
eyes,
but kind of gave them the Iron Fist
Peter Parker treatment where they had like
the big whites with the shape around them.
But I pretty much ripped off the costumes
of the original X-Men,
which was the gold tunic.
And the trunks and then, you know,
the gold gloves and the buccaneer boots.
So I get that was his first outfit.
And and what I love about that age
is, you know,
you're just so you're so amped up as
a kid.
I'm creating the most amazing thing ever.
And so so I knew that that he
was going to be in space.
I knew that I wanted him to have
a spaceship.
I wanted him to have his own enterprise
or whatever,
because the Millennium Falcon wasn't out
yet.
And then at that time,
his name was Dr. Adam Steele,
and he'd been in a nuclear accident that
gave him the strength of thirty men.
That's what I laugh at when I think
of that stuff, right?
Yeah.
But his color scheme and the name,
the color scheme, he was always white,
gold and black.
So as I got older,
I kind of obviously discarded that when I
realized, well, that's a little...
it's a little silly and it's a little
derivative.
I really started thinking about if I'm
going to do a story about a space
character,
Maybe I decided to kind of go in
the realm of stuff like Dune.
Is he a noble?
You know, is he like someone's like,
is he a prince?
And so for a while,
I originally had wanted to do more of
like an outer space retelling the story of
Moses.
He was he was part of all these
noble houses.
And his family was kind of the main
noble house that ruled over the other
subordinate governor houses.
Well,
he finds out that he's been adopted and
then his family's actually been
subjugating the people.
the citizens of where he's from right
somewhere in another star system and so of
course he ends up feeling betrayed
renouncing his birthright and then his
family actually has these suits which give
them power that's how they're able to kind
of lord over the citizens including the
heirs they get one too so he decided
to use his suit to sort of free
the people kind of thing right
But then the more I thought about it
as time went, of course,
when I would tell people that, you know,
and I've learned to kind of get over
this.
But when I would say that to my
friends, they're like,
that kind of sounds like Dune.
So as soon as I heard that,
I was going, well, OK,
maybe you need to kind of switch angles.
So after a while,
I started thinking about it.
I'm like, you know what?
I also love the Three Musketeers.
What if I do a story about more
of a peasant who wants to join?
It's kind of set in the same universe,
but instead of him being like a royal
heir,
he's from some outer rim territory planet
like Luke Skywalker.
And he wants to become, you know,
and it definitely starts to have a little
more of a Star Wars feel because there's
these honor guard figures that are like
folk heroes and these suits give them
their superpowers,
kind of like the Green Lanterns,
Power Rings, et cetera, right?
So he wants to become one of them.
And it's kind of more about his story,
right?
He comes from, I guess, you know,
humble beginnings in poverty.
And it's about a young man who's wanted
to be one of these kind of these
noble folk heroes.
And his world gets ripped apart because
his family is killed.
Kind of like the superhero mythology,
right?
So it kind of changes his persona because
as a young boy, he was innocent,
wanted to become one of these.
And with his family...
You know, a number of things happen that,
you know,
we haven't divulged it entirely in the
comic yet when people read it.
But he ends up kind of going from
like a young,
innocent boy to a bit of an antihero
to a hero arc, you know,
like because he's got now got a chip
on his shoulder.
He feels cynical.
And, you know,
I'm a sucker for redemption stories
anyway.
So, you know,
I've taken elements of like Peter Parker
and Bruce Wayne and all that.
And I'm always kind of intrigued with
that.
the iterations of these characters where,
like the super villains,
they have something tragic happen and they
could have gone one direction or the
other.
I mean, Peter Parker,
after Uncle Ben gets killed,
he could have selfishly kept using his
powers to try and gain something
selfishly.
And then Batman, at least in the films,
they implied like in Batman Begins,
he was sitting in that prison,
maybe over in the Philippines,
wherever it was,
and he had to have someone come in
his life that gave him a path.
Like Liam Neeson, but not exactly how,
you know, obviously there's twists there,
but I decided I wanted to tell that
kind of story about,
in a way you could say it's sort
of an allegory for my life, you know,
come from humble beginnings.
I've had dreams of doing stuff since I
was a young boy.
There are many challenges that have come
my way since that time.
And sometimes you have to learn to adapt.
And so I really,
at the end of the day,
even with the trappings of a space opera
and cool spaceships and,
and superhero powers,
I want to tell a very human character
driven story about a guy that any of
us should be able to relate to.
In fact,
all the characters and all my stories,
I want to give them a little more
gravitas as well as like, you know,
depth villains too.
I don't, you know, I want,
that's kind of my goal or the notion
for any of my IP is I want
to tell stories that take the tropes,
of of pop culture the cliches and sort
of turn them on their side a little
bit and give people a little bit of
a different version of what that is and
and ultimately at the end of the day
because um you know growing up loving
superheroes i i realized something too as
i got older i love batman i mean
don't get me wrong i love superman and
the x-men stuff but i love batman i
love iron man i love the rocketeer
I love the gadgeteers,
and that's what I realized.
I love the guys that at the end
of the day are us.
Granted,
they maybe have to train or they have
gadgets and abilities,
but ultimately it's still us.
And so I decided to make my character
a version of that so that he gets
superpowers because he discovers a suit
down the road.
And at this point in his story,
he's kind of lost his way for a
while because he has tragedy hit his
family when he's about –
don't know maybe early teens and then by
the time he's in his mid to late
teens he's been wandering aimlessly after
his family's gone and so he could have
gone down the path too of a villain
but as we we come at the beginning
of the story you know it's sort of
his beginning of arc where he's going to
be making mistakes and all of that so
anyway so with all that being said usually
i pitch it as and it says that
in the usa article what if you took
the batman story sprinkled it with iron
man tech and dropped it off in star
wars
Now,
I love the concept of this story and
where you're going with it.
But at the end of the day,
when people hear Black Alpha or when they
come to your booth at a Comic-Con and
they go, hey,
what's the essence of this story?
When they read that story,
what do you want them to feel when
they read their first issue of Black
Alpha?
Well,
I don't know if every creator feels this
way, but I'll say for me,
like you're always kind of hoping that you
can give other people the feeling that you
had when you first experienced something,
that thrill of like, what is this?
You're immediately, you're into the world,
you know?
That's always my hope.
And the one thing that I've done,
because sometimes that term can be
misunderstood,
because I know when I first got this
out in the public eye,
I had families come over to me and
I would tell them this is an all
ages title.
In other words, there's no gore,
there's no swearing,
but there are some dark themes in it,
you know,
especially the loss of family and kind of
how that's handled.
But I would tell people, you know,
so I had a mother ask me,
so would my nine or ten year old
I said, yeah,
I would feel comfortable with them reading
this.
So they would pick it up.
And it felt good to say that because
I'm going,
me growing up on Star Trek and Star
Wars,
that's something I could experience with
my parents.
And I sort of, I create,
I wear my influences on my sleeve.
I mean,
I have other material that would probably
be more along the gritty line of adult
stuff.
but this is the one because I created
it as an eleven-year-old.
I think ideally,
because of the stuff I grew up on
which appealed to kids and adults,
that's the goal is that this rise that
fine line like kids should be able to
enjoy it, maybe get some ideas,
be inspired,
but adults can be caught up in the
political intrigue and the character
development of the piece.
It comes off as one of those pieces
where a father or a mother could sit
down with their daughters or sons and kind
of like page by page this and read
it together and enjoy it together.
There's a lot of comic books out there
of many different walks of life.
but there's not enough comic books out
there where a family could sit down and
enjoy it together.
And it's really cool that you have created
one like that,
that has got a lot of love from
a lot of different people in a lot
of different places.
So yeah,
When I realized who you were, actually,
and when you had mentioned that your stuff
was on Big Bang Theory,
I probably watched Big Bang Theory that
night.
And I had seen your prototype,
Black Alpha,
sitting on the shelf in their apartment.
And then later on at the comic book
shop,
seeing your posters of Black Alpha on the
wall at the comic book shop.
is just one of the coolest things ever
and i know we were talking about this
a little bit before we got actually on
the show live what was your reaction the
first time like you you're like hey here
is the stuff and then you know then
some people sending you screenshots like
oh i've seen black alpha on big bang
three well what was you how was what
kind of emotions did you experience in
that
Well,
the funny thing was when I think the
very first episode that had the stuff on
there,
because I had been communicating with the
set decorator for the show.
And then so I had a list of
things to send him.
And by the way, the cast members,
excuse me,
Sheldon and Leonard were supposed to wear
T-shirts, too.
Oh, OK.
They gave me their sizes,
but apparently they predominantly had to
deal with D.C.
So if you look at like when Sheldon
wears a lot of it's, you know, D.C.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So flash.
So that kind of fell apart a little
bit.
But I remember that that when they got
the material in,
I heard from a friend that Chuck Lorre,
the creator of the show,
took out the spaceship for Black Alpha and
pretended like he was flying it around the
set there.
That would have been really cool.
Yeah,
that was really fun and exciting to hear.
And then when I was at C to
E to I had heard that the episode
that the stuff was going to be on.
So I was actually with some friends who
also had gotten their stuff on the show.
We had a little bit of a viewing
party,
but I was getting things ready for C
to E to.
And then I was sitting there looking to
see if I could see the ship.
in raj's apartment and because of the
shape of it and how it was lit
you could kind of make it out but
not really so then i'm like well i
can kind of see it so that's really
cool it wasn't until the next day that
i had some friends go oh that's awesome
and then they brought up about the
figurine
And I said, oh,
I didn't even see that.
You know,
so then that's when all that began.
But I had so many people reach out
to me the next day.
And it was just kind of this sort
of like community feeling like this is
really cool.
This is kind of surreal.
Like my characters now are part of this
world,
like being on the sets and these
characters and the universe,
their stories take place.
And then, of course, after that,
other people and some of it's been some
of the people have been following what
I've been doing for years,
which I'm always grateful for.
You know what I mean?
Because.
they've kind of seen me go through the
highs and lows and be able to kind
of celebrate some of the wins for me.
Right.
And, and so I, I appreciate them,
I guess, being part of it.
So I think too, back then,
and I think I was starting to do
some TV show interviews and stuff.
And I remember like talking about,
you know, that's what it was about.
Oh, how's that feel?
Big bang theory.
And then,
and then I knew I had the next
month I had the USA today announcement
that I was going to do at Denver.
And I got to actually sit up there
with the creators of Ben ten to do
that one.
to show a trailer and stuff like that.
So in that month,
there was kind of these two things that
were happening.
I almost did the six,
seven thing with my hands right here.
So all I can think of,
my daughter still brings that up.
I know it drives people crazy,
but I talk a lot with my hands.
So anyway,
but it was kind of one of those
feelings of like,
wow,
I haven't even been at this this long,
even though this character has been with
me for a number of years,
but getting out in the public eye and
then there seems to be these opportunities
that are just kind of happening quickly
out of the blue.
And so I think at times for a
while, as exciting as it was,
I sort of took that for granted,
unfortunately,
because
You think, oh, you know, boom, boom, boom,
boom.
Here we go.
And I was kind of coasting off those
for a good year or two.
And then I started having studios reach
out to me.
Hey, what's this black alpha thing?
Have you ever thought about we're trying
to look for material to turn into like
an animated series?
So and that happened three different
times, you know, for a few years there,
too.
Now, with all that being said,
and I still like, you know,
and I know sometimes on my page,
if people go to my Facebook page,
I reshare some things.
And part of that is because for me,
it's fun to relive it.
The kid in me never gets tired of
that, those kind of milestones.
And also I'm like,
my stuff is always new to somebody,
you know?
And I'm sharing something that I'm proud
of.
And I think it's cool, you know,
and that sort of helps me get through
the times, you know,
when something was option to be turned
into a cartoon or movie or whatever.
And ultimately, and by the way,
people don't realize it.
Ninety eight percent of the things that
you see, whether it's a film or TV,
there's hundreds of other percentages of
people that also got their stuff to option
for TV movie development.
Things just don't happen or haven't
happened yet.
So those,
those wins kind of helped me get through
those moments as I still continue to this
day, you know,
explore and seek those opportunities.
Like I said, you know,
having a film made of one of my
other characters,
even as an indie production,
it's still really exciting.
I mean,
the director sends me clips all the time.
And so I feel very grateful that,
you know,
that I've actually had a number of my
IT set or IP,
several of them actually land with people
in the entertainment world that they're
intrigued by all of them,
whether or not it's the design of the
characters or the premise, um, you know,
and I've had people like, uh,
I become people, uh, friends online with,
uh,
Chris Hunter,
who happens to be Jeffrey Hunter's son,
the original captain of the cage pilot for
Star Trek.
And I sent him some Black Alpha stuff
and he loved it.
He loves the ship.
I have a friend, Rob Pratt,
who's been worked at Disney for decades,
and he's a showrunner and he's also been
a fan.
And I sent him copies of the comic
and shirts and everything.
And they've been so supportive.
And so I feel like when you have
people who
are part of this major pop culture history
like Disney and Star Trek.
And they're telling you that they like
what you do, you know,
it gives you kind of a sense of
like, okay, maybe I'm not insane.
Maybe my stuff is working out.
Cause you know,
it's waiting your turn basically at this
point you feel like,
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you're well, I mean,
I think everyone will probably go through
this where you're kind of going,
am I crazy?
Is my stuff bad?
And I just don't know it.
And I think when you face rejection,
which you kind of have to grow thick
skin for, too.
Oh, yeah.
That that that's what I guess I've learned
through the years is that everything I
wanted to do.
always involves an element of
disappointments and just getting rejected.
And that's just something, I think,
a skill people have to acquire.
And I always think about these actors that
get these interviews in these movies and
TV shows that you think because they
became known for one or two different
iconic roles that they were up for so
many that they didn't get.
you know,
we just get to see the wins in
the public eye and not the stuff that
goes on the behind the scenes.
So no, a hundred percent on that one,
a hundred percent.
And so do moments like that,
like having your stuff on big bang theory
and having fans, uh,
of your work that work at disney and
on star trek do you think those moments
validate the idea that creator owned ips
can break into mainstream culture such as
black alpha being appearing on big bang
theory well i i think because of the
the uh the last maybe fifteen or twenty
years we we've never seen a better time
for people
And I mentioned this kind of a little
bit earlier,
I keep having these milestones that I
mentioned, but when Image Comics,
first started.
And Rob Liefeld, to me,
is one of the biggest champions of
creator-owned stuff.
And I feel very much a kindredship with
him because he's like me.
He just grew up loving all sorts of
pop culture stuff since he was a young
boy.
And he's still so passionate about comics
and also creating his own characters too,
right?
So I definitely feel a kindredship there.
And then watching what Image Comics did
back then is still something that's felt
to this day,
where those guys took
became the captain of their own destiny
and took their characters and sort of took
a shot and feel like, you know,
as they say,
took a big swing to see if people
were going to respond to what they were
doing, the original stuff.
Right.
Because.
Yeah.
And I think that because of that kind
of mantra and philosophy that image has
had since then, currently,
I still subscribe to that where I'm like,
you know, because I mean,
I've had people ask me going, hey,
what would you do if somebody came up
to you?
And because as much as you know,
I'm known to love Star Trek.
star wars and they said what if somebody
gave you an opportunity to tell your star
trek or star wars story of course that
would be thrilling i have ideas trust me
stories i'd want to do but but for
me as the birth mother of what i've
created there's no other feeling the world
like it than seeing your stories your
characters the the world building the
elements of the universe the the the
locations everything about them their
stories their journey seeing it actually
come to life in a tangible form there's
no other feeling in the world like it
for me and especially taking it years
later yeah i imagine like anybody who has
created an independent ip on their own
that would be like the best feeling in
the world right just to have your stuff
out there mainstream in that that way and
that's something i strive to do here is
I don't care if I ever become mainstream,
but as a platform,
my ultimate goal is to make indie comics
mainstream, like public-facing, like, oh,
there's other options out there.
It's not just Marvel and DC out there.
There's guys who may be your next-door
neighbor creating these amazing works in
these amazing comic books that...
you can buy and you can enjoy and
they're fantastic.
They're as good,
if not better than those of the big
two or the big three comic book companies
out there.
And it could be your next door neighbor
making that IP.
And that's to me is like,
is why I sit here right now talking
to you and seeing the successes that
you've had and not just successes.
We've talked about your lows that you've
had, your highs that you've had,
And just such a really cool journey that
you have been on creating your own work
now.
Well, the interesting thing.
Oh, go ahead.
No, no, no.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
I was going to say the interesting thing
is to like, you know,
even though I kind of treat it as
a humorous thing, these anecdotes.
I when I was in sixth grade and
I was a shy art nerd,
wasn't very popular in school.
So when when recess came around,
all the other kids were out playing
different games and different things.
I stood by myself at the corner of
the school.
And I would fantasize about doing
interviews even then.
Or coming up with a theme song for
a Black Alpha TV show.
You know what I mean?
Or even if I'd watch things,
one of my friends kind of got a
kick out of this.
Have you ever seen the Disney The Black
Hole?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
I know it didn't do what Star Wars
did or even Star Trek for that matter,
but there was a theme in the black
hole where they're sort of having their
Star Wars style gun battle.
This theme that kicked in and it had
kind of a fanfare, heroic theme.
I remember listening to that going,
that could work for Black Alpha or
something like it.
So even as a kid,
I'm thinking of this stuff.
So having the ability through technology
now and the internet and a way to
reach an audience and see all those
things.
Because the one thing that people tell me,
which I take for granted is,
I've had people go, you know,
when I was younger,
I wanted to do this,
but then I kind of either gave up
or I lost interest.
They said,
you're one of the only people that I
know that hasn't let that go,
especially from your young childhood years
of like, here's my character.
And, you know, that's why I said,
even though it's not a big part of
pop culture, you know,
I'm doing a few things this year to
celebrate Black Alpha's fiftieth
anniversary in nineteen seventy six to
now.
You know what I mean?
I've got a couple of surprise projects
coming up.
and i i sort of made a post
about that about a month or so ago
because it dawned on me where i'm going
i can't believe this character has been a
part of my life for that long you
know and uh and here he still is
and here i am together along with the
other characters that i've created since
and by the way i forgot i brought
a little fun thing too because while we're
talking about it so i figured i'd show
we got my toys
That is still, like, such a cool thing.
It's like Ben Ten stole that concept,
I swear.
Well, I was very much inspired by them,
too.
Whoops, hold on.
Almost brought the headphones out.
But I have a few different versions of
these that I take with me to the
cons.
And this one here is actually more like
Batman, the animated series.
Like,
see if I can pull this helmet off.
The big broad shoulders and the slimmer
waist and leads.
Yeah,
and then the head comes off so you
get to see what he looks like.
As a kid,
that was something I was always intrigued
by when you see Batman without his cowl.
And then I also had another friend
commission this kind of an anime style.
And because one of the comments that I've
gotten from people through the years is
that even though Black Alpha sort of goes
over the tropes of superheroes,
it actually could translate to even like
an anime style Neon Genesis Evangelion,
you know, Robotech,
that kind of stuff too.
So and then I was going to show
you, you know, when I'm at the con.
So I've always got a couple of different
covers.
you know, variants and stuff.
I still sell these currently at the con.
So that's fun.
And a lot of people come back and
buy them and then want to talk over
the story because I put I put in
these comics like star maps
some concept designs of other ships that
people don't see in the current story to
show them how big the world is how
big the universe i've created because i
personally i love that stuff i've loved
that since i was a kid i love
behind the scenes stuff um the star trek
technical manual any of that stuff you
know so i play that to my own
work and then uh and then this part
is humorous i actually have a funko pop
of me
So that sits there with me at my
table.
But I actually have my friend Jack Egan
got this made.
It's a little Black Alpha Funko Pop.
that's really cool so so every time i
set up at these shows and i have
that um it's kind of you know obviously
it's a completely different galaxy that
rob leifeld kind of the the air that
he breathes with his success but i love
seeing him like you know if you ever
watch his podcast he's got so many markets
and statues of like uh deadpool and cable
behind him so obviously he's kind of the
same way like seeing toys of your brain
children it's such a thrill every time one
that never gets old you know so
I imagine.
It's such a cool thing to have something
go from your head to paper to a
piece of plastic in front of you and
being able to hold your figure,
to be able to hold your comic book
and to have these conversations with
people as they visit your booth at a
Comic-Con or something like that.
It's such a cool thing in my head.
I remember when I was coming up in
the nineties and seeing the guys from
Image,
Rob and Jim and Todd and all those
guys, those were rock stars to me.
Those were my rock stars.
To see the Spawn movie happen and that
kind of stuff, to me,
is still one of the coolest things ever
because that was an independent comic that
Nobody expected to.
I mean, shit,
we're like three hundred issues deep,
three hundred plus issues deep into spawn
right now.
And they're we're supposed to be getting a
second movie.
Finally, there's been an animated series.
There's been a video game on Sega.
And these guys weren't expected to be
around that long.
They were suspected to be, you know,
a flash in the pan like many,
many others.
And here they are.
when T, thirty years later?
It's, I think, yeah, it's,
I'm trying to think, ninety-two, I think,
is when it started.
Ninety-two.
But ninety-three, I think,
is the year where it really, like,
zoomed off for them.
It was like, ninety-two is when it,
the concept and the idea and the thoughts
were born and the first issues were
hitting the shelves.
But it feels like ninety-three was that
year that it really took off big for
them.
what was fun is when image actually had
his twentieth anniversary i got to uh
premiere a lot of black alpha at their
show that's really cool to me that was
very symbolic of like these guys showed me
an amazing path and i'm going to be
at this show to sort of do my
version of that so i got to meet
other image creators that were having
books launching and stuff then and
That was still a thrill for me,
because that was one of those shows where
people were coming over to me.
They were drawn by the maquettes and the
other merchandise that I had created then.
And then they wanted Black Alpha sketches
when they would buy a preview edition and
stuff like that.
But I will say that for me,
what image represents as a mantra is so
incredibly important,
because it gives the power to creator.
And people don't realize it too.
There's been so many amazing books
through the decades that have come out of
the indie scene that like the crow.
Yeah.
You know, just, you know,
these amazing works that and I guess my
personal when I get on my soapbox a
little bit is that we need fresh voices.
We need fresh stories.
You know,
if if there was some of the mindset
that was around around the time of like
the pulp heroes in the early thirties of
like the shadow and Doc Savage and stuff,
we would have never gotten Batman or
Superman.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Yeah.
The Phantom.
There always needs to be a voice.
And obviously there has been.
I mean, The Walking Dead.
You know,
it's funny because image begets this
movement.
And because of that,
Robert Kirkman gets killed.
the walking dead comic, you know,
going through image and then it's a TV
show and it becomes this phenomenon,
all this kind of domino effect of what
the power of image gives the creator.
And so, um,
turn around and gave us invincible too.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, yeah,
he's got kind of the one-two punch
currently of two of his IP doing very
well in other media.
And that still inspires me all the time
currently and will continue to inspire me
because, you know, like I said,
being a proud dad,
I always think a lot about, you know,
because my daughter's my one and only
child, right?
that I wanna leave a number of legacies
for her besides first being a good and
loving dad, teaching her things,
but also to let her know dad went
after something, even when it was hard,
no matter what, I didn't give up.
And that's kind of the main legacy.
And then eventually,
not to get all morose,
but when I'm not here,
I wanna sort of leave an estate that
she can benefit from my characters
whether or not by that time they'll have
been turned into something like a movie or
a cartoon and figure out a way to
kind of keep that going forward and maybe
even adding her own creations in the mix
too, you know, so...
So that would be really cool because I
don't think we've ever had that where a
father-daughter or father-son duo have
done the same characters that I can recall
or picked up the character and then took
it to that next level.
I don't think we've ever had that before.
And that'd be really cool if your daughter
decided to pick it up and become that
first, you know,
to have a father-daughter duo do the same
character and to take it to that next
level.
Yeah, I mean, you know,
and I've had people ask me to,
you know, because, you know,
because of just how much I love and
care about her.
Do you have any tributes or I've got
three different IP projects and each one
of those represents a stage in her life
that's going to be a tribute to her,
especially when I'm not here.
I want her to have those as kind
of a bit of a memorial gift,
I guess.
But but, you know, of course,
I'm the kind of dad that I'm like,
I would love it if she did that,
but obviously support her own path, too.
You know,
that would that would be pretty cool and
interesting.
And and it's funny, too,
because she she's always surrounded by
black alpha stuff.
And I think now she's used to it.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
It's kind of that like, oh, yeah,
this is my dad's character.
But I remember when she was about three
or four and I had one of my
images of my main several IP and she
pointed to them and she goes superheroes.
And then she pointed towards Evelyn
Eleven,
the one that's currently be made as a
film.
And she goes,
I want to be her for Halloween.
She wasn't getting it that I created these
characters.
I got a little choked up at that
moment because I was going, wow,
that's amazing that I can share part of
this world that is so passionate and
important to me with my daughter.
Usually,
I do one or two cons a year.
I got a con coming up in a
couple of months.
She's treated like mascot royalty there.
She's been going there since she was three
and she's going to be five.
And I've always told people when I do
the opening ceremonies and the closing
that I appreciate how much everyone has
made her feel included in the big nerd
family that we have and stuff.
It's really cool.
And my daughter's the one that really got
me back into comic books and got me
going into Comic-Con.
Because I hadn't been in years and years
and years.
I just simply...
I could say I had the time,
but it was like...
I didn't want to go to these things.
And now that she's that age where she
can enjoy them,
she enjoys them more than I do.
And I just enjoy going to hang out
with her and seeing her face and how
much she enjoys these things.
And to me,
there's nothing better than when you have
those types of things that you can share
with your kids.
And I wish more people would,
I wish I would have took more time
earlier in my life to enjoy those things
as well.
But no, that's really cool that, you know,
she's,
she's right there along with you and
enjoying it,
like watching her dad do his thing.
Well, you know, what's interesting,
you know,
because I can tend to overthink a lot
of things, but I feel like, you know,
generationally,
some of the paradigm shift that has
happened is like my parents' generation,
they grew up in the fifties and that's
when kind of nerd culture really started
beginning, right?
I mean, it'd been around since the series,
but like, you know,
the Superman TV show with George Reeves,
the Lone Ranger with Clayton Moore,
that was stuff they started growing up
with and have been able to kind of
pass along to me.
And then
the sixties with Star Trek.
But I feel like nowadays,
because of how long all of these decades
worth of genre culture been around that
something that, that, you know,
generationally we grew up on, right.
And kids now can have their own version
of that.
And I think that's really cool that
parents and their kids can share all the
nerd stuff together.
Yeah.
We're back.
I think when,
when things were different decades ago,
I think a lot of maybe adults,
not all of them,
but probably a lot thought this is kid
stuff.
You put that stuff away when you get
older, probably telling their kids, yeah,
get rid of it.
That's how a lot of these comics got
rid of that,
became the ones that survived were
recollectibles.
And I think that now I just love
that I can share things.
By the way,
I'm out of the loop on Stranger Things.
I know quite a bit about it,
but my daughter loves that show.
So I'm going to have to learn more
about it and share that with her because
I went and bought her a Stranger Things
jacket a few months ago.
She just had to have it.
They have a new animated series coming
out.
I think it's called Stranger Things,
something like that.
So it's like,
it's like a story that takes place in
between like season one and season two,
I think,
or maybe between season two and season
three.
One of my Facebook online friends,
Eric Robles or Robles, I'm not sure.
He he had a cartoon out a couple
of years ago called Glitch Text and Glitch
Text.
And so he's actually I've been seeing it
in his feed on his page that he's
he's a person who's pretty much,
I believe,
show running that Tales from Stranger
Things.
Yeah, that's it.
Tales from eighty five.
so can we talk a little bit about
the um just the comic industry in general
and some of the things that you have
experienced and some of your lessons
learned from that so what is this what
is something about the comic industry that
people aren't ready to hear i think um
and this is just my opinion that
Comics have a different presence than they
did for generations.
Like I said,
sometimes it has been a struggle to get
younger readers.
And also,
there's a lot of ebb and flow now
more than ever.
I mean,
the entertainment industry is going
through that now more than ever, right?
But basically that...
I don't think comics will die as an
art form,
but I think sometimes people have to be
open-minded to how the information is
delivered platform-wise.
And I've been seeing Rob Liefeld talk
about this pretty regularly is that now
more than ever, do your own thing.
you know,
because Marvel just had a lot of job
cuts,
even editorially and the comic umbrella,
but also the visual development.
You know, and I feel like, and I,
you know, I don't begrudge anyone that,
you know,
When they were younger,
it was always their dream to work on
the X-Men titles or somebody drawing
Batman or whatever.
That's cool if that's your dream and you
were able to make that happen.
You know, awesome.
But I do feel like because of the
age and also, you know,
a change is hard because I've said this
repeatedly that.
what i think changed with comic books and
i do feel like i hope it has
a bit of a resurgence like the lp
community yeah where you know vinyl
records sort of came back that people
having a comic in their hands and reading
them will see seem kind of kitschy not
kitschy but niche and new and fun because
um what i've told people is i said
you know when i was a kid and
i grew up reading comics
it was left to the theater of your
mind, right?
So Iron Man, you know,
I always wondered as a kid in grade
school,
if they ever make an Iron Man movie,
how are they going to do that?
Well, now that we have films,
they can do things way beyond comics.
Video games can do things way beyond
comics.
And I feel like that's where comics have
kind of taken a hit.
And I think that it's always good to
just stay adaptable, I guess, you know?
And I just think right now, once again,
more than ever,
if you have a story that you're dying
to tell and you're able to either bring
a couple of partners or you can do
it yourself,
just get out there and do it,
put out a web comic, whatever it is,
you know, and you never know.
And it's definitely,
it's definitely the time to that with
whether it's a web tune or creating your
own actual comic book,
your physical comic book.
It's easier now than it has ever been
for people to,
with indiegogo out there uh kickstarter
and there's a couple other platforms out
there that are gearing up to also add
a new element to that and um i'll
be talking to one of them next month
who's getting ready to they've launched
the app where you can read independent
comics,
but they're also going to add a
crowdfunded element to it if they haven't
done it already.
And I'm going to be making that
announcement probably next week,
like
Because he's not on the schedule right
now.
However,
I felt really strongly about what we were
going to discuss.
So my first opening is in June.
However,
I was going to have a sit-stay period
in there where I wasn't going to have
anything.
So I bumped him all the way up
into there because I do feel like it's
something that
is going to be really good from a
comic or indie comic book perspective for
a front facing community where you can
read digital comments and also have your
comics funded,
which is going to be a really cool
thing to get to talk about with the
creator of that.
But so do you think gatekeeping is real
in the industry?
Yeah, I mean,
gatekeeping is real in many parts of life,
honestly.
Yeah, definitely.
A hundred percent, but...
But in the entertainment industry,
for sure.
I mean, some of it,
I slightly understand the reason for it,
because...
I feel like, you know,
no offense to I mean,
I'm always a big cheerleader of anyone
trying to bring something that they have a
vision for.
Right.
Some people, though,
their skills are a little rough.
I feel like some gatekeeping is partially
there for that.
You know what I mean?
Because they don't want every person
filtering through.
And then you have this bottleneck of.
people that are tying up the production
process or the editorial process or
anything right um and and it can be
frustrating i mean i've i've been a part
of it where i've been on both sides
you know what i mean like even yeah
even uh you know i worked for a
while as an assistant art director
at uh you know a couple of video
game companies and there's gatekeeping
going on there i mean the art director
and i had to look at stuff to
sort of put a bit of a wall
up to decide whether or not this person
is going to be let in right yeah
or especially when people have a dream and
they they they're just dying for somebody
to give them their first shot um but
i suppose really even now though that's
even easier now with things like stream
and it's easier for you to or sorry
steam
where you can make your own game and
put it out there for people to play
and to purchase and to enjoy.
Well, even right now,
I won't go into detail,
but I have a couple of filmmaker friends
of mine and one specifically that I
partnered up with that we're building some
things behind the scene in the animation
space because there's never been an
easier, better time to do it.
So we'll see.
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
So I mean,
that's what's exciting is that I'm not
waiting for because I've had to be in
that position myself.
Yeah.
That you're hoping somebody gets what
you're doing.
to give you, you know,
there's always that one voice or the one
person that says yes.
And, you know, because it's funny,
I've always thought it was interesting
when you hear all these stories about
studios that passed on Star Trek and Star
Wars.
It's wild, ain't it?
And part of me goes, well,
then that person has no business being in
that gatekeeper position.
Because if they couldn't see,
obviously their powers of vision are not
as dialed in as they claim, right?
And some people could say, well,
it's the luck of the draw.
When you see something at its early
stages,
we don't know how it's going to turn
out.
There's no formula.
But I feel like there can be a
formula.
And sometimes when people have continued
success,
that is because they are sort of more
conscientious of their formula, right?
That's how stuff is.
It's awesome that you keep bringing up
Star Trek because me and Evan just talked
about this and how Lucille Ball put up
her money to have that initial pilot made
for that show.
And the second pilot, too.
Yeah.
You know, otherwise, it is really cool.
Yeah.
If that first pilot was rejected and they
didn't go there,
we never would have gotten Star Trek.
Yeah.
And there's a number of vampire slayer.
Yeah, there's so many things out there.
There's so many things out there that it
took either one one circumstance and one
person or a few that, you know,
that that the audience never got a chance
to see them.
And so, you know,
there's something to when you're asking me
earlier that I thought about George Lucas
has been quoted as saying is that.
If you're going to create your own
material,
you pretty much have to be married to
it.
And you have to be in love with
it.
And you have to be able to go
the distance with it because there's going
to be a lot of bumps in the
road along the way.
And I think that's what I sort of
get hope in my own endeavors is that
I'm like,
since all these things have been around
literally decades for me,
these characters are very important to me.
They're like friends, really.
And I hope that's kind of what sort
of helps me get to a certain level
is that I never gave up.
And I believe in what I'm doing.
know and uh and i you know i
mean i uh these stories for me i
i hope that like you asked earlier i
hope people are inspired by the characters
and on a side note i did want
to mention one thing too not to get
a little too dark and sad so one
of the motifs of of trandon and black
alpha's elite character is that he has to
navigate the loss of family and his
younger brother because one thing i
noticed about the superhero mess usually
the character loses the parents
yeah unless you're frank castle and the
punisher yeah your whole family yeah but
but in black alpha's case or the lead
character he loses his mother's already
passed down from illness so he he was
uh at a stage in his life where
he's fighting with his father he's in his
mid-teens he's got a younger brother
that's eight or nine that he thinks is
annoying so he carries a lot of survival's
guilt because i will say this no spoiler
they end up dead and something he does
selfishly so he's kind of navigating
And anyway,
and so it's about a guy who handles
the loss of not only his parent but
also his younger brother that kind of
counted on him.
Well,
my own brother passed away almost five
years ago.
So I sort of get to live that,
and he was twenty years younger than me.
And his name was Michael.
And so I talked to my family about
it,
and I decided to rename Trandon's younger
brother Michael.
You know, in tribute to my brother.
And there's even a dedication in Black
Office you want inside when you open it
up for him.
And so I feel like it's not necessarily
a life imitates art thing that I wanted
to live.
But it gives me even a little more
resonance with what the character goes
through when you're dealing with all of
these chapters of life.
I mean, I tell people, you know,
there's the old story that since the
beginning of time and when people would
sit around the campfires and.
cave drawings etc that you know people
like being audience members and people
like telling stories and the whole notion
of them is we can view them just
so many so many numerous ways they can
be entertaining but they can also inspire
us they can help us get through some
really rough times and that's what i love
about storytelling is that it really does
change the world
And everyone can take away what they want
from something, you know what I mean?
Some people maybe just want a light,
fluffy adventure,
and other people something much more
profound.
But that's what I love,
and that's why I will always preach the
gospel of storytelling as kind of a
personal faith to me because it's helped
me as a young boy.
It helped me get through some stuff,
helped me get through some tough times as
an adult,
even currently and through the future.
It helps me sometimes.
face my fears and my dragons and my
trials and my demons and all that stuff.
And that's what I'm grateful for.
You know,
I tell my mom that all the time
that with her and my dad,
I'm grateful that they also gave me the
appreciation for imagination and really
cool fun stuff like science fiction,
superheroes, et cetera.
And they let you embrace it too.
They didn't try to,
to stomp it out or do any of
those things.
Like I've seen, um,
know who were very talented artists and
their parents were like, you're eighteen,
get a real job,
get the hell out of my house.
You know what I'm saying?
They encouraged it, you know,
they wanted you to pursue what it is
that you wanted to pursue,
which is really cool because I know that
generation of parents very well and
Yeah, they usually didn't.
That wasn't their thing.
Their thing was you turn eighteen,
you either go to college,
you go to work and you get the
hell out of the house.
Well, I think what sets me apart,
I'm very grateful for,
is that my dad is a musician and
my mother being an artist,
that they kind of know what that's like
to have a dream.
And so in my family,
especially with a lot of my siblings,
music is a dream.
Music is something that they've done and
currently do.
I've done it myself.
So I feel like having my parents being
creatives themselves in that position and
also enjoying it.
Shout out to y'all for being inducted into
the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, right?
Yeah, eight years ago.
Yeah, that's really cool.
Yeah, that was pretty awesome, too.
So, I mean, you know,
the stuff that's happened,
the opportunities for myself, my family,
I'm always grateful and very proud of.
As you should be.
As you should be.
And it's cool that they nurtured that with
you and let you do those things.
Yeah.
so before we start closing this out just
one more for you if someone is trying
to break in today what is it that
they should really focus on whether it's
an artist or a writer you've done both
you do both so what is it do
you think they should really be focusing
on to if they're pitching it to marvel
if they're pitching it to whoever
Well, first of all,
I will clarify a little thing.
So I don't consider myself a writer.
I'm a storyteller.
Like I come up with a plot and
the tone and the characters.
And I tell people my writing is rich
with cliche.
It sounds like every movie I've ever seen.
So I work with writers.
I work with screenwriters,
even on Black Alpha.
And that, by the way,
is really fun for me because then they
give the characters a voice that maybe I
didn't anticipate.
So I sort of get to be an
audience member and be like,
that was a clever line of dialogue.
So that's exciting for me.
So as far as if you're talking about
the traditional model of breaking into
comics,
I would just recommend in this day and
age,
and I've had people ask me probably in
the last ten years or so that I
said, you know,
I don't want to sound like I'm being
dismissive,
but I said I always have questions I
get on Google and YouTube.
And there's so many things out there for
any of us.
If you have questions and I'm sure,
you know,
anyone could find what's it like to try
and break into comics now,
as opposed to what I broke in,
you know, I will say this though,
from what I experienced was I,
try and sort of boil the essence of
your goal down to at least one thing.
Don't start out with some grandiose
vision.
I mean,
like there might be a very rare wonder
kid out there that can break into comics
being this amazing writer and amazing
illustrator,
but like kind of what I was told,
like, um,
are you going to be a pencil or
are you going to be an inker?
Which one, you know?
So I'm like,
I want to be a pencil.
So I focused on that.
And then, um,
Always be ready for critique.
Don't personalize it.
Some people, I think,
give up quickly because of that.
Because I've reminded people,
because I've used to even give talks at
colleges and high schools,
even with video games,
that when you want to do these kinds
of things,
you have to keep in mind that the
people that have already made it
That's who the managers deal with.
So you've got to make sure,
as honestly as you can,
hold your work up compared to theirs and
see.
Because they've already got an Arthur
Adams.
They've already got a Michael Golden,
John Byrne, and the newer talents,
the image guys and the younger guys.
So make sure your work stands up just
as tall as theirs because, I mean, yeah,
there might be the occasional Cinderella
story.
But ultimately,
you've got to have at least your basics
dialed in,
and that includes –
um comics you know having the ability to
clearly tell a story and there's an old
one too um an editor should be able
to tell what's going on in your story
without any dialogue the dialogue is the
icing on the cake or the captions so
your storytelling has to be that clear
that they can tell from page one to
two to three and from panel one you
know exactly what's happening here and
that's why i bring up again carl kessel's
advice of um
doing you know like the establishing shot
the close-up and and why that matters and
also get your hands on as many books
as you can get online and look at
as many Google articles as you can YouTube
articles and programs to sort of give a
fresh perspective of how you do this stuff
and and this is one thing that a
lot of people forget about and I kind
of did too as glamorous as it seems
You better be ready to draw your butt
off because getting in is five percent of,
you know,
and then after that you get a gig.
And then you're going to have days you're
going to be drawn all day and all
night.
Depends on what the script and, you know,
you have the world of deadlines.
Yeah.
Deadlines.
And you've got a writer that just loves
putting crowd scenes into the story,
like a big gala.
Right.
And you got every single one of those
people.
so keep that in mind too you know
that uh and you know i've been guilty
of this i have my favorite things that
i like to draw and things that i'm
not as crazy about but try and round
out your repertoire because at some point
you may have to draw a ranch
Horse, animals, you know,
something in history, you know,
something from the eighteen hundreds.
You know what I mean?
Like I tell people comic book artists are
probably some of the most undervalued
illustrators in history because you sort
of you get to be a fashion designer,
an industrial designer, an architect,
a director, an actor,
all of it all rolled into one.
photographer,
because you got to get those angles.
Yeah.
You got to make sure you got good
composition and your shots and all of it.
Yeah.
So I said,
so they are one of the most underrated
disciplines out there because you're
required to do so many things,
but you know, but,
but if you have the juice for it,
you know, I think that it's worth it.
So that's, what's funny thing too,
I will mention is.
So when I first got into games, I,
And I would have to do several roughs
and iterations of an assignment.
It doesn't matter if it was an orc
or some sort of noble valiant character.
And I remember the art director at the
time, who's also a dear friend of mine,
he basically said, loosen up, man.
Put asymmetrical armor and it has all
these different filigrees and adornments.
Because he goes,
you only have to draw this once, dude.
And I was like, oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I guess I don't have to keep redrawing
this guy.
Yeah.
You know, so that was kind of like,
you know,
because because that was the one thing,
you know,
coming in during the image in the nineties
to like their books.
You know,
I had tons of those gradient lines.
I loved all that detail.
And then I would also make my characters
way overly designed.
And then I forget.
I'm like, oh,
I got to draw this guy about twenty
more times in this story.
And I spent all this time putting all
this honed detail into one image with his
armor and stuff.
And so that was something like there was
a learning curve,
drawing for the video game industry,
being a concept artist,
as opposed to like drawing comics,
you know what I mean?
Even though there's some similarities in
the skill set.
It's wild.
I like what you said because I always
say art should tell the story and the
word should just amplify the art and
advance that story that's being told with
the art.
It is a tried and true statement.
If you can do it, awesome.
We're going to hit some rapid fire
questions.
Are you ready?
Sure.
Indie comics or mainstream?
Indie comics.
Love it.
World building or character first?
World building.
Good one.
Print or digital?
Both.
Okay.
It's going that route.
What project you wish you could have
worked on?
It could be anything.
I wish I was the guy that did
that one.
I would have given anything to do any
Star Trek project.
Whether or not it's working on a film
or the comics.
So IDW Dark did Star Trek Red Shirts.
You know,
the red shirts are the guys that always
die first.
And it was a horror comic.
It was so good.
Such a fun, unique thing.
Because we always make fun of the red
shirts dying.
And here was a comic book about the
red shirts dying.
It was so good.
But one piece of advice in one sentence
for anybody out there who wants to get
into it.
I'm probably combining two terms,
but create honestly and be passionate
about it.
That's the one right there.
All right.
It's time to bring it home, Tom.
Where can people find your work and where
they can follow you?
I'm still kind of old school this way.
I mean,
I know I have my friend Jack that
kind of runs some of my social media,
like my Instagram,
which is connected to my Facebook.
Don't really do the TikTok thing yet,
but mainly it's Facebook.
And you can find me under T-O-M-R-A-S-C-H,
probably if you can see that there,
or if you're listening, T-O-M-R-A-S-C-H.
And usually for those who aren't watching
this, I...
I've been humorously compared to Aquaman
over the last few years or Jason Momoa.
Or also I look like a pirate or
a biker.
I was thinking Billy Ray Cyrus myself.
That was the latest one I just got
about two weeks ago at the mall.
So I cracked up with that one too.
But also usually the profile picture of me
and my daughter.
So I didn't include your Facebook profile.
social media in the description i didn't
know if you would want me to use
that one or not i did use your
instagram okay on there i just didn't know
if it would be okay to include your
face but that's the only reason oh yeah
in fact i've told people for years that
i'm like you know if i meet you
at a con or whatever feel free to
reach out to me i love visiting with
everybody okay um and then i made some
great relationships and friendships just
by connecting on facebook and i share all
of my projects and the status of all
them on facebook mainly
All right.
So when I go to when this gets
ready to go live,
I will include the Facebook in there as
well.
I just didn't want to do that one
because that is a personal thing.
I just didn't want to do it without
first talking to you and making sure that
was OK with you.
So, no, I appreciate that.
And I've been one of those people that's
been very open about that.
I guess I feel like if you maybe
run into some people that maybe seem a
little off culture and then.
you know you just either don't respond or
that's what the block button is for so
exactly and i know when we first linked
up to to make this happen you got
lucky i would say because you went you
went to my spam account because you
actually messaged me which is not
something i was used to and i just
so happened to be like yeah and i'm
like well he does comic books i guess
let me you know pull up his profile
and see who this guy is and i
was like
so he he's a legit person he's a
real person he's not somebody spamming me
and like you know put you over back
into the inbox and we we had the
conversation and we we got this this you
know made this happen but
Yeah,
it was really like you were the first
one to ever reach out,
just pop me a DM like, hey,
I'm Tom,
and I'd like to come on the podcast
and talk about my IPs and stuff.
I was like, okay, cool.
And you were the first one to ever
go, hey,
I know you like to handle business by
email,
but can we just have a quick conversation
just to sum up some stuff and just
get some stuff done?
And I was like...
Okay.
Yeah, sure.
I'm about to go on break.
Let's make that happen.
Well, what I appreciate about that,
what I was going to say,
and I don't mind sharing with the public,
and I think I shared that with you,
is I have a minor form of cerebral
palsy.
So texting is very difficult for me.
Typing,
I even have to do that with my
index finger.
It's been something I was born with.
People are like,
how are you able to draw?
And I said,
it's a minor handicap I've been able to
overcome.
But I've actually had to hold my pencils
and paintbrushes weird,
and I have to anchor my arm a
certain way.
That's why a lot of my work tends
to look angular because I've been able to
kind of make that work.
But but ultimately and also I kind of
miss the old ways of people having a
good old fashioned conversation where you
can hear their voice.
So I'm always it was really it was
it was like I said,
it was my first time ever just
like having a conversation with the
creator before we ever talk here on the
show and it was it was good i
mean we had a good like thirty minute
conversation and it was just like once we
got to talking it was just two dudes
talking about what they love and that's
comic books and our children right so it
was a really good conversation and i
appreciated that as well
well i told you i saw you come
up in my feed and so i was
yeah your show for a minute and i
kind of like your vibe and i love
independent comics podcasts because that's
where my direction means too so i'm very
much kind of in this i feel like
we're all sort of in this together whether
that's getting a podcast show off the
ground
you know what i mean i'm very much
i am um cheerleader of the indie movement
independent film independent these
podcasts all of these you know what i
mean and comics that's really kind of
where my spirit really lies and like i
said that's nothing against mainstream
success but ultimately i just i love the
sort of garage band style do it yourself
there's such a tenacity and such a
fulfillment of no matter what you know
whether or not you're putting things
together with scott state just getting it
done
Yep.
So no, a hundred percent.
And you were like,
one of the guys was like, Oh yeah,
I Googled and you were one of the
places that came up.
And I was like, wait, you Googled it.
I was like, Holy hell.
I'm like, I can be Googled.
Like the show can be Googled.
And to me, that's like,
it lets me know I'm doing something right.
You know?
And it means a lot that you found
me or you found the podcast through a
Google search and here we are.
Yeah.
And I'd love to come back on the
show again, by the way.
I know that try and do a Kickstarter
for Black Alpha down the road.
And maybe when you have an opening
schedule,
we can kind of go over that a
little bit and see how that's doing or
how it did or whatever.
Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
And like I was telling you earlier,
this is breaking news for anybody out
there.
I guess we just booked June.
Like June is fully booked.
So thank you to everybody out there.
I never expected the podcast, in general,
just to have the steady flow of creators
and artists wanting to come on and talk
about their work.
It has truly been a blessing to be
in this position,
and I'm hoping this is the movement going
forward and that I can spotlight as many
indie creators as humanly possible from
all walks of life.
yeah it is really cool i literally booked
my last date i had available for june
yesterday so that was really cool to get
to do and i know i've already booked
a couple of dates in september as well
which is really wild and um absolutely
more than happy to have you back on
and talk about the kickstarter that you'll
have coming up and um
Even help you out with it if you
need some advice or what have you.
I think I've talked to enough Kickstarter
creators over the last year and a half
to I might know enough about Kickstarter
to be a little dangerous.
Yeah, I mean, and, you know,
and I can sometimes I don't mind giving
updates, you know, like I said,
we'll see kind of where the Evelyn,
Evelyn Levin movie.
I keep forgetting to mention the name of
the character with with with Frank Powers,
who's, you know, starring in it,
but also directing it.
And, you know,
it's also it's a low budget film and
same kind of thing.
It's an it's an indie production,
which is kind of really what I wanted.
So I feel like even that as kind
of another version of the indie spirit is,
you know, a low budget.
You know,
I hope that it's a bit of a
love letter to like sci-fi movies from the
nineties.
Yeah.
You know,
that when everyone is putting movies out
and you got to,
you got a budget of fifty bucks and
he's trying to do something amazing with
what you have.
I mean, we had, we had ZombieCon,
the creators of ZombieCon on the podcast,
I think last year.
And those guys were absolutely amazing.
I think they made that movie on like,
eight grand or ten grand,
something like that.
And it's such a phenomenal movie.
If anybody out there who hasn't seen
ZombieCon yet cannot recommend it enough.
That is such a phenomenal love letter to
Comic-Cons and
to zombie movies that it's just this
beautiful cinematic indie movie.
It's a love letter to comic cons and
to zombies and to that culture and such
a fun movie.
And I think you can rent it for
like five ninety nine or something on
Tubi.
One of the other horror platforms as well.
Such a fun, fun movie.
But let's continue on this.
So where can everybody find Black Alpha
right now?
If they wanted to purchase Black Alpha or
any of your other comic books,
is there a place where they can go
and purchase those?
Well,
right now we've had issue on a Black
Alpha available.
I'm partnered up with WTF Comics, which,
by the way,
they probably don't like it when i do
this it doesn't sound it doesn't stand for
what you think it does it stands for
world transmission frequency comics um but
you can go online and they can either
send you physical copies or um or you
know the digital ones for purchase and
once again that's wtf comics world
transmission frequency comics but it's i
designed the logo for them so just as
wtf comics that's mainly the place um
So hopefully, like I said,
we're trying to finally get moving on
getting issue two wrapped up.
Because the one thing I will say is
the Black Alpha story I've always
envisioned as a miniseries.
Yeah.
You know, it's not like an ongoing.
It's like four issues to wrap up an
arc.
Yeah.
And it's kind of structured with the four
acts almost like as if it was a
novel or movie.
So it'll be somewhat of a...
a final a finale i guess at the
end but yeah if we're able to maybe
get other spin-off books down the road but
so that's the goal still is to just
do the four issue mini series and and
then eventually do a trade paper back of
that to release down the road and we're
hoping to get more movement on this again
because a lot of time real life gets
in the way or happens and uh yeah
you know get this other couple issues
wrapped up maybe in the next couple or
few years and finally get that trade paper
back out that'll be
a big accomplishment for me and also
something kind of that's been weighing on
my shoulders for a number of years,
you know, so.
I like you, man.
I'm going to have to hit them up
and get me a couple of physical copies
because I'm a physical copy guy first.
If the only way I can get a
certain project is digital,
I will definitely read it digital.
And I do love when people send me
their their digital digital stuff before
shows just so I can
have a little bit more fill of what
it is that we're going to be discussing.
And I do those get saved to a
hard drive that's password protected.
So nobody else has access to those,
but it's always really fun to read it
digitally.
But there's something about a printed
comic, the way it smells,
the way the paper feels,
the turn of the page.
It's just something really fantastic about
that.
But before I let you go,
it's so tactile and it creates that
emotional investment.
It really does.
And yeah, it's I love them.
And so is there anything upcoming we
should be watching for from Tom?
No, I mean, like I said,
there's some behind the scenes stuff that
we can't really share yet.
I tried.
I tried, everybody.
I tried.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know,
and people who come to see me at
the con that I'm going to be at,
which is Black Hills Con here around the
middle of June.
So it's about, you know,
a couple of months away.
Usually there'll be I tell people to come
up and, you know,
I speak at a couple of panels,
but also come to my table and I'll
give you a little sneak peek for the
general public of things that we're
working on.
So some people there will probably get to
see some more behind the scenes stuff with
some of my other IP people.
May end up having some other images.
That's an incentive to go see him at
the con right there.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And I like to interact with everybody
because I feel like I'm with my tribe.
I'm in my element.
I mean,
I love I have been as a guest,
but also going to cons to try and
get work.
I've been going for.
Thirty, forty, you know, thirty seven,
thirty eight years.
Yeah.
And that's how long I've been doing cons
and that's how much I love them.
And I still love them.
I get excited when I do them.
And I just love meeting and all the
interesting people.
This, like I said,
just the spectrum of these personalities
that all love what they love,
just like I do.
And and I love meeting people that kind
of get over their shyness to tell me
about, well, hey, by the way,
I've been working on my own story and
I love hearing about what they're doing
because it's the same.
I'm like, I,
I get where you're coming from.
I've been there.
I'm still there.
So that's part of what I enjoy about
doing cons.
And I just enjoy all the friendships I
made, the people I meet, like, you know,
the cosplayers come up with some amazing
outfits and looking like walking
characters come to life, obviously.
And so I just enjoy the whole experience.
Now, I like it, Tom.
I really do.
I want to, first of all,
say thank you for coming on the podcast
and sharing your incredible journey with
us from Marvel to Indies to seeing your
IPs on the Big Bang Theory.
I want to personally wish you many,
many more years of success with your IPs
and with what you have working on in
the background.
And
Can't wait to see what those things are.
But ladies and gentlemen,
this is what it's all about.
Real creators, real journeys into stories.
behind the stories.
Tom, again,
thank you for stepping into the council
and sharing your journey with us tonight.
And to everyone watching,
if you believe in independent creators,
if you believe in creator-owned
storytelling, make sure you like, follow,
and share,
and help us continue to spotlight the
voices and the future of comics.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this has been the USDN Podcast,
where indie comics come to life.
Council is now adjourned.
Y'all be safe out there.
Thank you again.
Thank you.